As a coach, leader and student of the human spirit who is committed to life-long learning, I’m always in search of new professional development opportunities that will help me grow personally, professionally and spiritually so I can share this learning and become a better coach to my clients.

I consider my life to be my learning lab wherein I get to learn new ways of looking at and solving challenges with my clients and helping them reduce stress in their lives while increasing joy and wellbeing, as well as effectiveness and performance as leaders.

Rarely do I come across a topic that covers all three areas (personal, professional spiritual) at once, but in week two of the World Business and Executive Summit (WBECS), I felt like I hit the jackpot and struck gold when I tuned into the Positive Intelligence (PQ) webinar led by Shirzad Chamine.

His message is about the internal voices in our heads that either steer us in the right direction or down the wrong path — kind of like a devil and angel sitting on each shoulder whispering in our ears.

Shirzad's message isn't new, yet it has an interesting twist and is highly relatable. It’s applicable to everyone and makes the practice of improving emotional intelligence (EQ) — an advanced leadership skill we must all develop if we want to excel in higher leadership roles — super easy.

Instead of having to wade and sift through about 2,000 emotional intelligence competencies to find out which ones we need to work on specifically, Shirzad studied the science of positive intelligence (PQ). He developed two assessment tools to help us recognize the 10 saboteurs that come to haunt us and screw us over in every unconscious moment we think and interact with others. We only have to become conscious and aware of 10 stumbling blocks versus developing 2,000 competencies in order to become more emotionally aware and intelligent.

This may just be the fast track to emotional competency.

In his book Positive Intelligence, Shirzad explains the origins of the saboteurs, which once upon a time, usually during our early childhood, served us in their role to keep us safe. We invented them for that purpose in our minds. The problem with the saboteurs is that we outgrow them eventually and that their usefulness turns into the internal voice that becomes our enemy and wreaks havoc in our lives.

As adults, we need to learn to be guided by our more mature inner sage, which always knows what’s best for us. The saboteur voice left undetected or unconfronted has a way of undermining our influence on others, ruining our relationships, and keeping us small and preventing us from excelling in different parts of our lives.

Knowing our real enemies (the saboteurs), makes it easier to understand our internal dialogues and discern which voice to trust and follow.

Shirzad has developed two free online assessments, the Sabateur Assessment and the PQ Assessment. Both are free, fast and easy to complete and return some very in depth reports.

Have you taken the Sabateur or PQ assessment? Were you surprised at the results? I'd love to hear from you in your comments, or via Twitter (@neumanncoaching).